Within the span of just a few years, Instagram is ruling the roost as a premier digital marketing platform for every niche out there. Instagram marketing tips are the need of the hour for brands looking to establish a solid presence online. To say that its rise has been meteoric would be a gross understatement. Instagram has brought with it the age of the digital influencer as well.
Part of Instagram’s monumental pull and drawing factor comes from the fact that it’s highly adaptable to business strategies. The other factor that pushes Instagram to become king of the hill is the fertile grounds for creativity it offers. The combination of these factors has boosted Instagram’s popularity sky-high. In a nutshell, if you want to give your brand a lasting impression on a vast potential audience, Instagram is the place to be.
The Instagram Lowdown
If you’re in this blogging corner, it’s a given that you would have browsed through the Instagram basics by now. That’s rookie stuff, handed out as a starter kit to anyone who wants to bring their brand to Instagram.
Within this starter kit, however, people start to form misconceptions about Instagram’s potential, however. Understandable, because when you’re new to the digital marketing game, you learn on the job.
Instagram Mythbusters
There are a number of myths about Instagram floating around out there that can be a serious speed bump to people looking to take the plunge. In the interest of clearing the air, let’s debunk a few myths regarding Instagram marketing tips for business, first.
Instagram is volatile as a source of income.
False. It’s all about how you play your cards and adapt to Instagram’s trends. There are countless full-time influencers out there who rely on Instagram as a steady source of income. If you painstakingly build your brand through creative elements on Instagram, you will reap the rewards accordingly. As for monetization, it depends on what products you sell on the platform, not Instagram itself. It’s as simple as that!
Instagram is only for millennials.
In a way, this is true, because the lion’s share of Instagram users are predominantly millennials. Thanks to its innate colourfulness and vibrance, it captures and holds their low attention spans. That isn’t to say it’s a dud for other age brackets, though. Instagram works so well for brands because it gives them free rein on creativity. Artistic expression is an aspect that appeals to individuals both young and old.
Setting up an Instagram page is expensive.
False. There is SOME capital required to get your Instagram page up and running. No arguments there. Some Instagram marketing tips for business suggest investing in design and branding for brand representation even before you sign up. Like everything else in digital marketing, though, the initial investment is greatly outweighed by the potential ROI you can get. In that regard, you will recoup your initial investment on your Instagram page in no time, if you play it right.
Instagram only works for visual media.
Partly true. Instagram is primarily a visual-centric social media platform. It’s quite evident even from its logo! However, that doesn’t mean it overtly favours photo and picture based handles either. Many bestselling authors expertly leverage their Instagram profiles to showcase their brand and monetize it.
These are some of the common myths hovering around the Instagram marketing tips for business that make the rounds these days. All of these revolve around the theme of letting go of inhibitions and actually sinking your teeth into what the platform has to offer.
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s delve further into the invaluable tips from Instagram experts.
Top 9 Instagram Marketing Tips
1. Maximize Story Potential
Stories on Instagram may seem trivial and of no significance to your branding objective. The truth is, they’re actually an integral part of the Instagram marketing model. Stories offer a creative outlet that regular posts simply can’t match. Over time, Instagram has also added a roster of formatting options to stories for added value. Stories offer a way for you to grab your audience’s attention quickly and effectively. It also helps you push content that isn’t strong enough to carry a post on its own. In a nutshell, stories lend that buzz and hype around your brand and keep your audience hooked. If you can add Swipe Up links in your stories, all the more reason to keep that story feed active!
2. Work On Your Hashtags.
To the average Instagram user, hashtags are just things you slap on to the end of a post. To the Instagram influencer, however, they’re invaluable marketing tools. Hashtags help your brand piggyback off the Instagram algorithm. In other words, they help get your products and brand image to those Instagrammers who are scouting for it.
In addition to this, signature hashtags offer a big boost to your brand. In fact, the most successful brands on Instagram all have their unique hashtags. Surveys show that branded hashtags clock reach metrics in the 200,000 bracket. Sure, it doesn’t happen overnight, but branding hashtags is a step in the right direction.
3. Keep Your Toolkit Handy
Instagram gives you plenty to work with in its base kit on its own. But that’s just bush league functionality. There’s a whole army of Instagram tools (both paid and free) out there that can really catapult your brand to new leagues. These run the gamut from post design tools to video recording tools. At first, you’re going to want to start with the free tools. These offer enough value on their own to be an asset to your page. Most importantly, you’ll want tools to help you streamline your creative process and posting routine.Then there are tools like Sprout that Put simply, tools are an Instagram marketing tip that keeps your brand a well-oiled machine.
4. Put In More Face Time
As a social media platform, Instagram highly favours direct interactions. A common pattern you’ll notice among the top-dollar influencers is that they build a sense of community among their followers. Nurturing a loyal audience base on Instagram is something that pays rich dividends in the long run. How can you go about this?
- Go live regularly
- Host contests
- Run Q&A sessions
- Reply to relevant DMs.
You can switch things up as you please!
5. Polish Your Calendar
Amateurs post as they please on Instagram. Successful brands, however, always have a game plan locked and loaded. On average, business pages on Instagram put up around 2 posts per day (inclusive of series posts and carousels). This isn’t just an arbitrary number. It takes into account audience attention span and brand saturation.
Know when your audience browses the app the most. Those are the prime selling hours where your content can grab maximum eyeballs. For example, if your target audience is college students, you will want to post during the 9-to-5 slot. It may sound inconsequential, but it works wonders to build your brand visibility on Instagram. Chalk out your Instagram content calendar well in advance. Following that, stick to the script. Resist the urge to post about anything and everything that trends. Keep it consistent.
6. Promote At Will
By now, you’ve probably figured out that business accounts get access to the Promote Post feature on Instagram. This is a powerful tool in the arsenal of Instagram marketing tips for business kits. Promoting your popular posts can net you significantly higher engagement rates. We’re talking around 25-50% more engagement on each post.
You can also determine the type of “ad” you want to promote, be it videos or carousel posts or even stories. Not only that, you can also kick your existing posts up a notch by promoting them for better traction. Use this perk wisely. Don’t sleep on it!
7. Use Partnerships For Better Reach
Thanks to the rise of influencer marketing on Instagram, striking partnerships with Instagram celebrities is a viable strategy. Like brands themselves, the influencers also specialize in particular niches. Your job is to find an influencer who can get your brand where it needs to go, effectively and smoothly. Of course, negotiation is key. There’s no Instagram marketing tip specifically for negotiation. You either are good at it or not.
Influencers bring with them their own audience base, which you can leverage for your own brand. You could even potentially convert them to your clients! When you go the influencer way, make sure you play to win.
8. Measure Your Metrics.
Keeping track of your Instagram page performance can be the difference between a good page and a great page. The pro tip here is to not get caught up by the numbers you see on the screen. That can go either way. What you want to take account of is the graph of your page. What matters, in the long run, is whether that curve is going up, even if steadily so. There are many spinning rims here that come together to guarantee your page’s success. Explaining the intricacies of CTR, follower growth and reach metrics is beyond the scope of this article. The idea behind following metrics keenly, however, is to keep the curve flying high. That’s possible only if your page works as a consolidated unit.
9. Regularly update your link
Instagram, for whatever reason, doesn’t let you insert links directly in posts (yet). You get the one link in bio, and that’s about it. Make it count. Link that bio to whatever you’re actively promoting at the moment. This is especially crucial in the phase before you hit the story link follower milestone, because that one link really is all you have!
The best tip here is to integrate it seamlessly into your sales funnel. Lead your audience to a landing page or profile that markets your products effectively for maximum benefit. Every lead counts!
Conclusion
Much like the platform itself, Instagram marketing tips for business are rapidly evolving. Every new trend and feature shapes the marketing landscape of Instagram. There’s no denying that there’s immense potential here. What separates the winners from the losers is how smart they play their Instagram marketing cards.
Which side will you be on?
